Texas report blames Camp Mystic flood deaths on poor planning

A Texas legislative report says Camp Mystic turned a flood warning into a mass death event because it lacked written evacuation plans, had poorly trained staff and failed to use basic emergency tools that might have moved children to safety before water rose. At the flood-prone girls’ camp on the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, 25 girls ages 8 to 10, two 18-year-old counselors and camp owner Dick Eastland died in the night of July 4, 2025.

The 115-page report, adopted June 18, 2026, said proper planning and counselor training required under state law could have given campers enough time to leave their cabins on foot and reach higher ground. Investigators said there was still ample time after the 1:14 a.m. flash-flood warning for an orderly evacuation, and even by 3 a.m. only an inch of water covered the nearby road. Instead, teenage counselors and the children in their care were told to shelter in place as cabins filled with water.

The report also faulted camp leaders for not using the public-address system to issue instructions and for not giving walkie-talkies to counselors. At least 39 adults were present during the disaster, the report said, but they were not organized into an evacuation response that could have used the adults already on site. Camp Mystic later withdrew its application to reopen for the 2026 season, saying no summer season should proceed while grieving families and investigations continue.

The findings carry national weight because they point to a failure that can be prevented, not simply endured. Camps and youth programs across the country are expected to maintain written emergency plans, train staff to execute them and keep communication systems ready when severe weather threatens. The Camp Mystic case suggests that the weakest link is often not the storm itself, but whether adults on the ground know how to move children quickly, calmly and together.

The report was produced by the Senate General Investigating Committee on the July 2025 Flooding Events and the House General Investigating Committee on the July 2025 Flooding Events under Senate Resolution 2 and House Resolution 177. Committee members said they interviewed more than 150 survivors, staff members and camp affiliates. The conclusions arrive after Texas already passed the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act and the Youth CAMPER Safety Act on September 5, 2025, laws aimed at tightening emergency planning for youth camps after the July 4 flooding killed more than 130 people across Central Texas.